Tuesday, August 2, 2016

St. Mary's Cemetery, Milford

Had a visit with my friend, Teague. After a nice lunch, we decided a walk would do us good. Teague suggested some places we could go. One of them was St. Mary's Cemetery. Right up my alley. I love to wander among the head stones especially the older stones as the sculptures and lettering are so beautiful. I take pictures of stones with an angel motif. A ghoulish hobby, but, hey, it's cheap.

The famous feature of this cemetery is a round tower based on the watch towers in Ireland supposedly erected to watch for invaders. The Milford tower is 73 feet high and made of Milford granite. The toweris dedicated to the Irish immigrants who settled in the area at the time of the Great Potato Famine and who are buried in St. Mary's Cemetery.

Through a wooded area we could see another section of the cemetery, an older section. We hopped into the car and Teague found a road in.

There was a very new, polished, granite monument. The inscriptions told the story of the potato famine and the hardships endured in Ireland, during the emigration, and in the new land.

The back of the monument explained the old cemetery had fallen into disrepair. The grounds were overgrown and stones had broken. (I hope because of weather and not vandals). A group of citizens from the town got together, raised funds, and volunteered hours of their time to reclaim the cemetery from nature and to repair the stones. The project took some 9 years to complete.

I was moved by the dedication quote at the bottom of the stone: We have walked in your footsteps. We have seen your yesterday. We who came after you have realized your dreams of tomorrow. You endured and your prevailed through all of lifes trials in the old world and in the new.

A fitting testament for all of us to honor our ancestors. All of us, at least in this country, are decendants of immigrants who came looking for a better life for themselves and their families.

2 comments:

It's a very moving quote.Cemetery's are fascinating. There's an old one in our town filled with confederate soldiers. One of the HH's sisters took us to a cemetery whose residents were mainly 'Hamm' and 'Bone'. :)